You have a voice in your head?

[StillStunned]

When I'm writing, I often imagine myself reading it aloud to my wife.

 

[stickygirl]

I hear myself when I think, read, write, ect. When I first found out some people don't have constant internal dialog it blew my mind because I almost never have silence in my mind.

Every thought that pops up in my head is in my own voice, but it's hard to explain. It doesn't 'sound' like my voice, it just is my voice. It's not loud or quiet, it's just always there. It's doesn't get tired, it doesn't take breaks.

Like if I just look at a cloud, I can get sucked into a ten minute conversation with myself, "Oh dang, that's a dark cloud... it must have lots of water in it. I mean, shit... that's a whole ass lake in the sky. Imagine if it just collapsed all at once. I bet it would kill everyone under. I mean, we already know a water fall can fuck us up, and we know people die from landing on water. So it would just be like landing head first on a lake of water from thousands of feet up, but upside down."

And another weird thing is when I'm talking to myself in my head, I can tell when my thoughts are 'on my side' because when I start talking to myself I'll be addressing Me, I, Us, as You instead, like "Yeah, no shit dumbass. Of course that didn't work out. You should've known better. Every time you try to bake something you just throw fifty dollars in the trash. You should just go buy some fucking donuts and give up."
It's like a narrator is following me around narrating my entire awake life. The only time I don't have internal dialogs is when I dream. And the very few times I did have internal dialog in a dream, I immediately noticed something strange things like mirrors not reflecting or all the books are blank, and then I realize I'm dreaming a wake up. Then blammo, my narrator chimes in like, "Holy shit, that was weird."

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing

 

[lovecraft68]

I hear my story ideas in my voice as I think of them. But when it comes to writing the story is being told to me as I type. The thing that makes this strange is it's a woman's voice, kind of smoky and 'speaks' more slowly than I do.

I've heard this voice before I began to write at different points in my life, usually not good ones. But 'Julie", I'll spare people the story behind that name, seems to enjoy the writing process so I feel I truly have a muse.

FWIW I went through some tests in my teens because a therapist felt I might be paranoid schizophrenic after I mentioned the voice, that and my general inconsistent and at times strange behavior.

Tests came back negative.

Fooled them big time. Heh...

 

[stickygirl]

I hear my story ideas in my voice as I think of them. But when it comes to writing the story is being told to me as I type. The thing that makes this strange is it's a woman's voice, kind of smoky and 'speaks' more slowly than I do.

I've heard this voice before I began to write at different points in my life, usually not good ones. But 'Julie", I'll spare people the story behind that name, seems to enjoy the writing process so I feel I truly have a muse.

FWIW I went through some tests in my teens because a therapist felt I might be paranoid schizophrenic after I mentioned the voice, that and my general inconsistent and at times strange behavior.

Tests came back negative.

Fooled them big time. Heh...

Wait - you’re not a woman?!

 

[lovecraft68]

Wait - you’re not a woman?!

Nah, I just have bitchy down to an art form.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Only if I'm reading lyrical poetry or lyrics. Otherwise, it's more like a movie playing in my head, or like feeling the meaning of the words as I read or write them.

 

[XerXesXu]

Inner voice/narrative/dialogue is another interesting facet of peoples' subjective reflection on their own cognitive processes. One of the normal developmental steps for a human is to develop a theory of mind, that is a theory that other humans also have minds, and they project into other peoples' minds their subjective analysis of their own cognitions. It's difficult to objectively investigate how human cognition works, but some have tried and interesting findings emerge.

This rather long but fascinating video reviews the findings of objective investigation:

I, subjectively, experience inner speech when I read and write, also when I listen to other people speaking - it appears always to be simultaneously translated into my own inner voice. I've checked, and that's not my own voice, my inner voice is like an idealised voice. Behind my inner voice there must also be a huge amount of non-symbolic thinking because my inner voice floats on top of the manipulation of vast quantities information embedded in my memory.

 

[dirk2024]

One of those wtf moments from a random Insta post that had me searching the web.

Some people have a voice in their head when they read but some people don't! This isn't a judgement - no one will be burnt at the stake, it's just strange how we each navigate the world. I do recall reading that centuries ago a monk was observed reading without his lips moving, to the consternation of others.
So describe what's going on in your head when you read, just for fun and science.

No voice. My issue is staying within the lines. I will be reading and, while my eyes continue to jump from word to word, I'll start thinking about other nonsense; bills, taxes, whatever. I have to catch myself, stop and go back to where my attention diverted.

 

[NuclearFairy]

No voice. My issue is staying within the lines. I will be reading and, while my eyes continue to jump from word to word, I'll start thinking about other nonsense; bills, taxes, whatever. I have to catch myself, stop and go back to where my attention diverted.

This too! It's why I don't read as much as I want to.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Sometimes, I guess.

 

[VerbalAbuse]

Slightly off topic, but one of my clients, a diagnosed schizophrenic, told me that he has made a major breakthrough in his therapy. He said, "I realized that just because the voices in my head tell me to do something, that doesn't mean I have to do it. I don't do what anyone else tells me, why should I listen to them?"

has he seen a specialist?

 

[MelissaBaby]

has he seen a specialist?

He has a therapist at the Community Health Agency, which is not optimal. Not that those people aren't good at what they do, but they are horrendously overworked.

 

[ronde]

I do "hear" a voice in my head when I read and write. I think that's because I learned to read using the "Phonics" system and because when I learned to read, both the teachers and my mother, who was also a teacher, thought moving your lips when you read was a sign of a student with poor reading skills. They thought the same thing about following the words with a fingertip. I don't subscribe to either of those stereotypes, but to some extent, some poor readers do tend to mouth the words and follow along with a fingertip.

If the work is well written and interesting, I can find myself visualizing the scene as well.